Posted by rvanson on June 8, 2007, at 11:52:06
In reply to To Rvanson, posted by deniseuk190466 on June 7, 2007, at 10:45:04
> Hi,
>
> So you ordered the mannerix and Celexa off the web, were you not worried about possible serotonin syndrome. My worry would be by doing it like that would be that I'd get it, have to call an ambulance and then be chastised like a naughty girl for messing around with medication. I suppose at least if it is prescribed by a psychiatrist then you are being monitored and maybe they would be able to provide you with a drug to use if you start to show symptoms of serotonin syndrome.
>
> Had you tried the Celexa and Mannerix alone and if so with what effects.
>
> No I haven't decided on ECT, firstly because it's not being offered to me :-) and secondly because I keep reading really negative stuff about it, maybe I should try using positive thinking about it, i.e ECT will work, what have I got to lose, there is a chance it will work, if I don't try I'll never know.
>
> When I went to this Day Centre I found it frustrating because they did this anxiety management class where they did these deep breathing exercises and visualisation and all those kind of things. I've been trying these things since I was 17, almost obsessively and they never worked. I told the Nurse that these things didn'd work for me and she said that it did work for everyone! and tried to imply that I wasn't doing it enough, wasn't doing it properly and was being negative about it. I find that sort of thing really frustrating, I know it probably does work for a lot of people but not for me.<<<<Hello Denise,
I am a middle aged man now and have had many years to study many different medications and other treatments for my condition, so I am aware of serotonin syndrome as well as all the other side effects that treatments for depression may cause.
No, I am not a doctor of medicine, that is true, but after years of being treated by Pdocs I can assure you that most of them know little more then someone like myself when it comes to prescribing medications for depressive illnesses.
In fact, many of them do little more then copy each other and prescribe the most common medications at the time or whatever the pretty sales-ladies that the pharmacutical companies send over to the mostly male Pdocs to sway them to Rx thier lastest version of drug "XYZ".
When those fail, these docs usually try to blame the patient in some manner or another, as if we are to blame for being treatment resistant to the current crop of popular medications being foisted by the drug companies.
You must never be made to feel guilty for being ill with a sickness that is not well understood by even the most astute doctors of medicine.
I know that I may sound harsh when I speak out about most Pdocs, but I have dealt with these doctors for over two decades and some of them are in need of a psychiatrist themselves. Some are just plain greedy and out for a quick buck at your expense, not really caring if you get well or not, as long as your insurance pays up on time.
Yes, of course there are some good ones to be sure, but they are rare indeed, IMO.
Perhaps in the UK it is different then here, as I am aware of the fact that you have a national medical healthcare program for all the citizens who reside there, unlike the US.
I only caution you about undergoing ECT because the side effects of this treatment are very major, life-changing memory losses and if we cannot remember our life's', then we have a condition that only adds to our misery from the depression and/or adhedonia and makes living even harder then it was before.
Of course, you are correct as well: if you do not try ECT, you will never know if it could help, and you may well benefit from it, but you have to realize that it is a *BIG* risk you would be taking and one that may well be irreversible and make matters even worse,
as it has done for so many other people.As to my own medical use of various anti-depressants, including Mannerix and Celexa: yes I have tried both of these alone, but together they work well, but only for a time, mores the pity.
By themselves, they are not as useful, by far.
Celexa is a good med for depression with anxiety but it is an unmotivating medication, not a good one for adhedonia, IMO.
Prozac is a much better med for adhedonia,
if one is simply considering the SSRI class of meds, but it often causes anxiety and other problems that many cannot tolerate for long.Mannerix is a great med for motivation/adhedonia but causes increased anxiety in myself, at least, to the point where I cannot take the extra irritability, insomnia & anxiety even though I feel much more a "normal" person while I use it.
I am also more social and much less prone to avoidance behaviors caused by the adhedonia, when I use Manerix in combination with Celexa.
My point is really that the human brain, nervous sysytem and it's workings are still not well understood by current medicine, even though much has been learned in the past century and this one as well.
One thing that we have learned is that no one person is the same and that what may work for one person, may be detrimental to another.
One day,there will be very successful treatments for most human illnesses and sufferings, including mental illnesses like adhedonia, but until that time comes we need to work with whatever we have available now and hope for
the best.
poster:rvanson
thread:760391
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070604/msgs/761837.html